Even with the U.S. Ski Team already performing at historic levels of success, it’s hard to overstate the benefits of a state-of-the-art training facility on U.S. snow. The Copper Mountain Speed Center, which opens today, is a godsend for American racers long accustomed to wearily wandering the globe in search of cold, hard snow and sufficient vertical for training. But Copper has been putting its high altitude and snowmaking know-how to work since Oct. 2, when 87 HKD tower guns began blanketing a venue big enough to accommodate even space-greedy downhill and super G training.